An amusement park comprises a number of attractions, for example, rides, shows and displays. Each attraction has a limited capacity for people to gain access to it at any specific time. For instance, a ride has only a certain number of seats. It is desirable that access be managed to use the attraction as efficiently as possible and that any regulation of access should be deemed as fair to all users. When more people wish to access the attraction than its instantaneous capacity allows, people who are unable to gain access immediately can be queued.
Physical queue lines are a well known way to manage access. However, the most popular attractions tend to have longer queues for access than less popular attractions. Moreover, potential users of an attraction may become bored queuing in a line. Managing access to a resource efficiently whilst minimising the length of queue line is difficult.
One existing approach divides the people who wish to access the attraction into two groups. A first group is arranged into a physical queue at a first access point for the attraction. Each member of the second group of people is informed of an allotted time slot when they can access the attraction. In order to access the attraction, a member of the second group need only be physically present at a second access point for the attraction, at their allotted time slot. Examples of such approaches include U.S. Pat. No. 6,529,786 and US-A-2008/0080445, both of which share common inventors with the present invention.
An alternative approach was described in WO-2010/055286, WO-2011/141561, US-2010/117790 and US-2010/0277276. Again, these share common inventors with the present invention. In these approaches, each person has a portable access key, such as an electronic module, a portable computer or mobile telephone with appropriate software or a paper ticket. Each portable access key has an associated eligibility level and each attraction has an eligibility threshold. These can both be represented by numbers. A person can access the attraction via that attraction's access queue, only if their eligibility level meets the threshold. The eligibility level for a portable access key increases over time, provided that the user of the portable access key does not access an attraction. The eligibility threshold is then set based on the size of a physical or virtual queue for the attraction.
This newer methodology offers significant benefits to both the users and attraction operator. The operator can control the size of the queue by setting the eligibility threshold accordingly, for example by increasing the threshold if the queue becomes too long. Moreover, this approach does not require a communications network to inform a user as to whether they are able to access a resource. Users benefit in that the attraction queues can be kept relatively short and their waiting time to access an attraction is therefore spent mostly outside a physical queue. This makes the users' queuing experience less boring.
However, this newer approach relies on the thresholds for each attraction being set appropriately. Any errors in the thresholds can make the access queue too long and cause problems for both the operator and users. Controlling the eligibility threshold is therefore a continuing challenge.